Penguins are familiar to virtually anyone who’s been to the zoo or had a stuffed toy as a child, but as we learn in the occasionally too-cute-by-half PBS Nature program Penguins: Meet the Family, there are more penguin species in New Zealand than in any other country on Earth. That will come as a surprise to anyone who associates penguins exclusively with Antarctica, but the familiar emperor penguin, the largest penguin and instantly recognizable with its black head, tangerine beak, white-and-orange-trim throat and white stomach and midriff, is just one of 18 separate species.
With no natural predators, New Zealand has always offered these flightless sea birds a sanctuary. Antarctica, on the other hand, far from being free of predators, is home to both the leopard seal — comes by its name honestly — and a remnant population of Southern Ocean orcas, one of the most quick-thinking and efficient predators in the entire marine ecosystem.
Penguins are believed to have lost the ability to fly some 60 million years ago in evolutionary terms, and small wonder: swimming is what penguins do best.
The program
With no natural predators, New Zealand has always offered these flightless sea birds a sanctuary. Antarctica, on the other hand, far from being free of predators, is home to both the leopard seal — comes by its name honestly — and a remnant population of Southern Ocean orcas, one of the most quick-thinking and efficient predators in the entire marine ecosystem.
Brooklyn actor Jayce Bartok narrates Meet the Family in one of those scratchy, goofy voices where you can’t tell if the narrator’s being coy or playing to an audience raised on Disney cartoons. If you prefer your nature programs narrated with gravitas — Joe Morton wins pride of place in my book, with his narration for the sweeping, unforgettable 2001 PBS-National Geographic docuseries Africa — but Bartok’s child-friendly tone works for penguins, even when they’re fleeing murderous sea lions. (The original 2020 BBC One program was narrated by the French-born UK biologist and TV presenter Liz Bonnin.)
Advances in camera technology have pried open the window on animal behaviour in the natural world wide than it has even been in the half century since David Attenborough first hosted Zoo Quest in 1954. It’s a real privilege to get so close to penguins as they meet, mate and raise their chicks in some of the most brutal weather conditions on the planet. The two species of Antarctic penguins, emperor penguins and king penguins, are unique in that they hatch their eggs on their feet. Don’t ask: You have to watch to understand how that works, and why.
It’s not entirely fun and games — childless penguins, lonely would-be parents, will kidnap other penguins’ chicks in a heartbeat, and for that reason a chick’s call is as unique as a fingerprint: Parents, mother and father both, can detect an offspring’s distinct cry even through a hail of wind and snow.
Midway through the program we see how penguins form colonies, in some of the largest groupings of birds seen in nature. There is indeed safety in numbers, even when the parents start fighting with other parents. It turns out it takes a village to raise a penguin, as well.
Penguins: Meet the Family premieres Wednesday on PBS Nature at 8/7c, and on the PBS app.
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